The Diverse Spaces of Play for Today

Abstract

Of the roughly 300 Play for Today dramas, a dozen have a non-white writer or director and/or deal with the experiences of black and Asian communities in urban England. These dramas are a tiny proportion of the overall body of work but nevertheless offer bold, often uncompromising representations of race, class and generational divisions in 1970s and early 1980s British culture. Focusing on space – in both the physical and cultural sense – this article explores the ways in which the use of location filming, in conjunction with the use of the studio in these dramas, allowed for a greater range of stories to be told, while offering new insights into the social and historical experiences of black and Asian communities. The ‘journey narratives’ of these plays expand the physical and cultural geography of the dramas and temporally connect a complex set of historical experiences, not previously seen on British television.